Nasa to launch emergency spacewalk after International Space Station computer breaks
The floating lab is relying on its backup systems until astronauts can get outside and fix the craft
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Your support makes all the difference.Astronauts are having to climb into space to fix a computer in an emergency move.
Two inhabitants of the International Space Station (ISS) will have to venture out on a spacewalk to repair a computer part – a data relay box – that broke over the weekend.
The broken computer means that the lab is floating over the Earth relying only on its second computer, potentially putting the astronauts on board at risk.
The primary device failed on Saturday, leaving the $100bn orbiting laboratory to depend on a backup system to route commands to its solar power system, radiators, cooling loops and other equipment.
The station's current five-member crew from the United States, Russia and France were never in any danger, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement.
Station commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Jack Fischer, both with NASA, will partner for the spacewalk, which is expected to last two hours, the US space agency said.
Earlier on Sunday, Whitson assembled and tested a spare electronics box to replace the failed device, which had been installed during a spacewalk on 30 March, said NASA spokesman Dan Huot.
NASA's last emergency spacewalk took place in December 2015 when two US astronauts left the station to release the brakes on a robot arm's mobile transporter.
The ISS, which is staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts, serves as a research laboratory for biology, life science, materials science and physics experiments, as well as astronomical observations and Earth remote sensing.
The station, owned and operated by 15 nations, flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth and orbits the planet about every 90 minutes. It has been continuously staffed since 2000.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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